Milan (Italy) (AFP) – US star Ilia Malinin suffered the biggest upset of the Winter Olympics on Friday as the overwhelming favourite for the men’s figure skating title fell twice to finish off the podium, with Mikhail Shaidorov of Kazakhstan taking a surprise gold. Malinin, a two-time defending world champion and undefeated for over two years, had been leading after Tuesday’s short programme, but he capitulated and ultimately finished 15th in the free skate, and eighth overall, after an error-strewn routine.
“I was not expecting that. I felt like going into this competition I was so ready,” the 21-year-old said. “I just felt ready getting on that ice. But I think maybe that might have been the reason, that maybe I was too confident it was going to go well. Honestly, it happened. I can’t process what just happened.” Before the Games, Malinin had admitted to not having a mental coach and had often joked that talking to his cats served as therapy. When asked whether his difficulties were more mental or physical, the American replied: “I think it was definitely mental.”
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Despite leading by nearly five points after the short programme, Malinin seemed overwhelmed by stress. With US gymnastics star Simone Biles watching in the stands, the three-time Grand Prix final winner failed to reproduce the form that sealed team gold for the United States last Sunday. Taking to the ice last to a deafening roar from the crowd in a shimmering all-black costume featuring gold details, the skater known as the ‘Quad God’ was in difficulty early in his programme. He landed his opening quadruple flip jump but singled his second quadruple axel, which he had been attempting to become the first skater to land at an Olympics. That set the tone for the rest of his four-minute performance, which drew gasps of disbelief from the crowd at the Milano Ice Skating Arena.
Two major falls followed, and then two of his quadruple jumps were replaced by double jumps, whereas he usually features seven quadruple jumps in his free skate. There were only three clean quads in his routine to the songs “The Ball” by Asaf Avidan, “The Smell of the Sea” by Alan Mayer, and “Code Duello” by Power-Haus and Sergiu-Dan Muresan.
After his performance, Malinin buried his face in his hands, realising the disaster that had just unfolded as his father and coach looked shell-shocked in the “Kiss and Cry” area. They watched as his scores flashed up, nearly 70 points below his personal best of 333.81 points. “It’s not a pleasant feeling and honestly I’m still trying to understand what happened specifically,” said Malinin, the son of Olympic figure skaters who represented Uzbekistan and emigrated to the United States. “But I know that it’s done, so I can’t change the outcome. It just felt so overwhelming, so honestly I didn’t really know how to handle it at that moment.”
Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama, who had been second after the short programme, also fell during his routine along with France’s Adam Siao Him Fa, who had been third. But Shaidorov surged from fifth after the short programme to take a surprise first figure skating gold for his country at the Olympics. His free skate to “The Diva Dance” earned him personal best scores of 198.64 for the routine and 291.58 overall, racking up over 21 points for his technically difficult opening triple axel-quad salchow combination.
Shaidorov said Malinin told him after his victory: “You deserve it.” “I just did my work. I just wanted to enjoy my free skate,” said Shaidorov, who finished sixth in the Grand Prix final in December where Malinin hit a record seven quads. “It was my goal. It’s why I’m training every day, and why I wake up and go to the training. That’s it. It was my goal this season (to) do five quads.” Kagiyama took silver, as he did in Beijing four years ago (280.06 points), ahead of compatriot Shun Sato (274.90 points), who moved up from ninth.
© 2024 AFP
